President Joe Biden announced that he will impose sanctions on military leaders in Myanmar who directed the coup that deposed and detained its elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and others.

Biden also said the Myanmar’s “military must relinquish the power it seized” on Feb. 1, and to release its prisoners.

“We will identify a first round of targets this week, and we’re also going to impose strong exports controls”, - Biden said.

He added that he will bar Burmese generals from getting access to USD 1 billion in Myanmar funds being held in the U.S.

Biden also said, “We’re freezing U.S. assets that benefit the Burmese government, while maintaining our support for health care, civil society groups and other areas that benefit the people of Burma directly”. He called on the military to refrain from using violence, as it has, against protestors exercising their democratic rights to object to the coup.